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HMS
Audacious was a King George V
-classThis is the 1911 class; for the 1939 class see King George V class battleship The King George V class battleships were a series of four Royal Navy super-dreadnought battleships built just prior and serving in the First World War....
battleship of the Royal NavyThe Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of HM Armed Forces . From the beginning of the 18th century until well into the 20th century, it was the most powerful navy in the world, playing a key part in establishing the British Empire as the dominant world power from 1815 until the early...
. The vessel did not survive its first conflict, being sunk by a naval mineA naval mine is a self-contained explosive device placed in water to destroy ships or submarines. Unlike depth charges, mines are deposited and left to wait until they are triggered by the approach of or contact with an enemy ship...
off the northern coast of DonegalDonegal is a town in County Donegal, in the Province of Ulster, in Ireland. Donegal is not the county town of County Donegal, despite being its namesake. Rather, the county town is Lifford, and Letterkenny is the county's largest town. Donegal town is situated at the mouth of Donegal Bay, on the...
in IrelandIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
in 1914.
Loss
At the beginning of World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
Audacious
was part of the Second Battle SquadronThe British Royal Navy 2nd Battle Squadron was a naval squadron consisting of battleships. The 2nd Battle Squadron was initially part of the Royal Navy's Home Fleet. During World War I the Home Fleet was renamed the Grand Fleet...
of the British Grand Fleet. On 27 October 1914 the Second Battle Squadron, consisting of the 'super-dreadnoughts' , , , Audacious
, , and , left Lough SwillyLough Swilly in Ireland is a fjord-like body of water lying between the western side of the Inishowen Peninsula and the Fanad Peninsula, in County Donegal....
to conduct gunnery exercises at Loch na Keal.
In a middle of a turn at 08:05 Audacious
ran upon a mine laid by the GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
auxiliary mine-layer Berlin
. The port engine room was flooded immediately, and Audacious
began to list heavily and settle by the stern. Captain Cecil F. Dampier, thinking that the ship had been attacked by a submarine, hoisted the submarine warning and the rest of the squadorn steamed away from possible danger. Audacious
, though unmanageable, was still capable of making on her starboard engine. Dampier believed that he had a chance of making the to land and beach the ship. The light cruiser stood by, while Audacious
broadcast distress signals by wireless. The Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Fleet, Sir John JellicoeAdmiral of the Fleet John Rushworth Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe, GCB, OM, GCVO was a British Royal Navy admiral who commanded the Grand Fleet at the Battle of Jutland in World War I. His handling of the fleet at Jutland remains controversial...
ordered every available destroyerIn naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, short-range but powerful attackers .Before World War II, destroyers were light vessels without the endurance...
and tugTuğ is a village in the Khojavend Rayon of Azerbaijan....
out to assist, but did not dare send out battleships to tow Audacious
in because of the apparent submarine threat. Meanwhile the White StarThe Oceanic Steam Navigation Company or White Star Line of Boston Packets, more commonly known as the White Star Line, was a prominent British shipping company, today most famous for its ill-fated luxury flagship, the RMS Titanic, and the World War I loss of her sister ship, Britannic...
liner Olympic
RMS Olympic was the lead ship of the Olympic class ocean liners built for the White Star Line, which also included Titanic and Britannic. Unlike her sisters, Olympic served a long and illustrious career , becoming known as "Old Reliable."-History:J...
arrived on the scene.
At 10:50, with flooding worsening in the starboard engine room, Audacious
stopped. Dampier brought the head of the ship round to sea and ordered all non-essential crew off. Boats from Liverpool
and Olympic
assisted until all but 250 men were taken off. At 13:30 the captain of Olympic
, Commodore Haddock, suggested that his ship attempt to take Audacious
in tow. Dampier agreed and with the assistance of the destroyer Fury
a tow line was passed within half an hour. The ships began moving toward Lough Swilly, but Audacious
was so unmanageable that the tow line parted. Liverpool
and the collier Thornhill
attempted to take the battleship in tow, but to no avail. In the mean time, at 13:08 a message had arrived from the coastguard station at Mulroy that the steamer Manchester Commerce
had been mined in the same area the day before. At 16:60 Malin HeadMalin Head , on the Inishowen Peninsula, County Donegal, is usually given as the most northerly headland of the mainland of Ireland . In fact, the most northerly point is actually a headland named Banba's Crown on the Inishowen Peninsula about 2 km to the northeast...
reported that the sailing vessel Cardiff
had also been mined the previous night. Upon learning this, at 17:00 Jellicoe ordered the pre-dreadnoughtPre-dreadnought battleship is the general term for all of the types of sea going battleships built between the mid-1890s and 1905. Pre-dreadnoughts replaced the ironclad warships of the 1870s and 1880s...
battleship out to attempt to tow Audacious
in. In case the ship was saved he also requested an officer from the Construction Department at the Admiralty in anticipation of major repairs.
Vice-Admiral Sir Lewis BaylyLewis Bayly was an Anglican bishop.-Life:...
, commander of the First Battle SquadronThe British 1st Battle Squadron was a squadron consisting of Battleships. The 1st Battle Squadron was initially part of the Royal Navy's Home Fleet. During World War I the Home Fleet was renamed the Grand Fleet...
, arrived on the scene in the boarding vessel Cambria
and took over the rescue operation. With dark approaching, Bayly, Dampier and the remaining men on Audacious
were taken off at 19:15. At 21:00 Audacious
capsized and exploded, sending débris into the air. A piece of armour plate fell on and killed a petty officer on Liverpool
, which was distant. This was the only casualty in connection with the sinking.
Jellicoe immediately proposed that the sinking be kept a secret, which the Board of Admiralty and the British Cabinet agreed to, an act open to ridicule later on. For the rest of the war Audacious
name remained on all public lists of ship movements and activities. Many Americans on board Olympic
were beyond British jurisdiction and discussed the sinking. Many photos had been taken and even one moving film. By 19 November the loss of the ship was accepted in Germany. Jellicoe's opposing number in Germany, Reinhard ScheerReinhard Scheer was an Admiral in the German Imperial Navy. He was in command of the Kaiserliche Marine High Seas Fleet at the Battle of Jutland, one of the largest naval battles in history....
, wrote after the war: "In the case of the Audacious
we can but approve the English attitude of not revealing a weakness to the enemy, because accurate information about the other side's strength has a decisive effect on the decisions taken."
On 14 November 1918, shortly after the war ended, a notice officially announcing the loss appeared in The TimesThe Times is a daily national newspaper published in the United Kingdom since 1785 when it was known as The Daily Universal Register....
:
A Royal Navy review board judged that a contributory factor in the loss was that Audacious
was not at battle stations, with water-tight doors locked and damage control teams ready. Note that , of the subsequent (but fairly similar) , was torpedoed at JutlandThe Battle of Jutland ; informally known by participants as Der Tag , was the largest naval battle of World War I, and the only full-scale clash of battleships in that war...
and for a time continued to steam at .
The wreck of HMS Audacious
was found 24 miles north of the Irish coast, and filmed for the television show Deep Wreck Mysteries
on the History Channel.
See also
External links
Audacious
Photo Gallery
Loss of HMS Audacious
A search link which shows a number of Youtube videos of dives on the wreck